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A high-profile French author and television presenter has triggered uproar by asserting that would be “incapable” of loving a woman aged over 50.

Yann Moix, himself 50, told Marie-Claire magazine’s French edition that women in their 50s were simply “invisible” to him.

“Come on now, let’s not exaggerate! That’s not possible … too, too old,” said Mr Moix, who has won several literary prizes including the prestigious Prix Goncourt, adding that women in their 50s were “invisible” to him.

“I prefer younger women’s bodies, that’s all. Full stop. The body of a 25-year-old woman is extraordinary. The body of a woman of 50 is not extraordinary at all,” he told the magazine in an interview on his new book, Rompre (Breaking Up).

The controversial author added that he preferred relationships with Asian women, particularly Koreans, Chinese and Japanese. “It’s perhaps sad and reductive for the women I go out with but the Asian type is sufficiently rich, large and infinite for me not to be ashamed.”

The comments sparked outrage on social media.

Valérie Damidot, presenter on top private French TV channel TF1, wrote on Twitter: “Yeah, fatso, us 50-somethings don’t want your microdick. Happy New Year to you too!”

The journalist and writer Colombe Schneck, aged 52, published a photo of a derrière on her Instagram account.

“Voila, the buttocks of a woman aged 52…what an imbecile you are, you don’t know what you’re missing, you and your tiny, paunchy brain.”

French MP Olivia Gregoire, a spokeswoman for Macron’s La République en Marche (LREM) party, tweeted: “Very classy Yann Moix. Very very classy. But just as stupidity and vulgarity are ageless, it’s reassuring in his case as I doubt many women want (these qualities).”

French female comedian Marina Foïs, who will be 49 on January 21, quipped on Twitter: “Only one year and 14 days to sleep with Yann Moix. Inshallah, it will happen.”

Feminist author Mona Chollet said Mr Moix - winner of the Prix François Mauriac from the Académie Française, director of three films and popular TV talk show editorialist- was a “sad sire”.

Meanwhile, journalist Sophie Fontanel slammed the author for being a “gilet jeune” - a play on words with the yellow vest movement and the French word for ‘young’.

“We’re all in the same boat of passing time, Yann,” she wrote. “Don’t think you’re above marks and wrinkles just because you can’t stand them. By limiting women’s lives, it is your own you are shrinking.”